IKEA bullied the developer of the indie game The Store is Closed into gutting the whole game. [0]
It’s a shame how people can even acknowledge, let alone applaud IKEA’s “funny” gaming-related ad after their successful meddling with SCP folklore, not to speak of the chilling effect their actions may have had on indie gaming.
This is a tough one. The main culprit here is that trademwark law forces the trademark owner into an active defense posture to avoid losing the trademwark. This is very different from patents or copyright. So, in a way, IKEA was forced to write that nasty letter to the developer. Still, it's obvious fromo the published game footage that the developer was trying to walk a line between referencing IKEA and calling them out directly.
I kind of wish that lawyers could settle these things more amicably than by opening with outright threats. The game is clearly taking SCP 3008 as its inspiration and that is a a quite satirical horror story take on IKEA stores. A part of me wishes that companies would be a bit more relaxed about obviously comedic or satirical uses of their identity. What would IKEA lose by approaching the developers in a more supportive manner initially? Say, by offering some more constructive suggestions to steer them away from the particular elements they take offense at.
It sounds like they mostly did something like that:
The lawyers then tell the developer, “You can of course easily make a video game set in a furniture store that does not look like, or suggest, an IKEA store.” The presumed game development experts go on to explain, “You can easily make changes to your game to avoid these problems, especially since you do not plan to release the game until 2024.”
They could have bought the game rights, hired the devs, or otherwise come to some licensing agreement. It’d have been a boatload of free publicity for very little outlay. I guess they may not have wanted customers to associate their store with scary things, though.
Yeah sorry man, that's clearly IKEA so it's obvious they had to act on it. Can't sell IKEA-branded games without their permission. Even on their Steam trailer, the first second is clearly IKEA. Just changing the name is not enough. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1593010/The_Store_is_Clos...
Sometimes it's not that deep. Sometimes the cute little indie dev just made a mistake.
The game is also not out yet, even though rewards were promised in June 2024.
Further, there’s at least the possibility on the part of the developer to claim that such usage is a “parody,” with parody and satire protected at the highest levels of American law through the application of First Amendment freedom of speech rights. However, courts will often require actual commentary to be made in order to extend such protections. In that way, a store name like “I CAN’T A” (or something far more clever) has a greater chance of succeeding than simply using a play on the word “store” in Scandinavian.
Trademark is about preventing someone's brand for being confused for another. Unless someone was confusing this for being an official IKEA product I'm not sure why it would be in the ballpark of trademark.
There is also trade dress of course but that isn't really related.
This is an often repeated statement online (like “fiduciary duty”) that way over emphasizes the risk. Parody media poses absolutely no risk to their trademark, not even a tiny bit of incremental “damage.”
Companies don’t need to be bulliest the vast majority of the time they act like one. We need to stop parroting this excuse for them.
I don't believe in intellectual property, but to the extent that we live in a world where IP exists, the original game as described is pretty clearly using IKEA's trade dress.
Eh, I kinda get it. For a brief time, the Mario pipes were more associated with Flappy Bird than with Mario itself. That was fine, and the game died out quickly, but if the pipes became associated with Mario's cock, or if the IKEA layout became associated with a bloodbath pvp game, those associations could easily overtake the original meanings in popular culture, and the original brands would never be the same.
I think that would be a fair price to pay for freeing our society from the shackles of pretending you can own an idea, but I get where these executives are coming from.
people underestimated the effect of jokes / stigma of media to a brand. There is non-zero chance that adults will associate the game with ikea brand and harm the brand image.
Was it important part of the game that the store looks just like IKEA?
If yes, that probably makes it more likely that it was a trademark infringement and that IKEA was justified.
If no, it shouldn't be a big deal to change the colors, just to avoid potential confusion.
Chex Quest was really good, wasn't it!? I was so impressed. Today I learned, it is known for having been the first video game ever to be included as a cereal box prize.
I watched a bit of someone's play through and was impressed by how much content there actually was for a one-off bit like this. I would have assumed they would have just made enough content to make for a funny ad but there's quite a lot of scripted storyline and voice acting.
Funny, but I hope it doesn't catch on. This genre of games is rather free from ads and the last thing we need is corporations shoving their marketing agenda into classics.
This is precisely how you advertise. But the beauty is that you can only do this a few times before the formula becomes worn out.
Others will have to come up with something else, entirely different, that is equally inventive.
Brilliant ad on the part of IKEA. It has all of the right ingredients, is totally unexpected, outlandishly absurd, and hits at a massive audience. Truly peerless.
I was wondering what compelled Bethesda to update the game a few weeks ago, the first time in two years. On PC, any update to the game breaks mods that rely on DLL modification, so you'd expect them to be wary of doing it for no reason. Maybe improving support for this was the impetus.
One of the known bugs in skyrim that will likely never be patched is that you realistically can't fill a room with cheese wheels, cabbage, bottles of wine or any other static objects (in a cell that persists items, like in an owned house). It's already hard enough to put an object on a table or shelf and expect to not find it on the floor if you leave and come back.
Add enough objects to keep track of and it'll crash the game immediately on loading the cell. Some of the examples of cluttered objects in the video are already pushing the limits of what will crash the game engine.
You've reminded me of a story from the Witcher 3 devs where during an earlier build items would randomly disappear. Horses, weapons, tankards, even NPCs... you name it, on certain conditions they would vanish before the player's eyes.
Turns out they weren't just disappearing, they were "teleporting" by effectively respawning at a single point in the dead centre of the map.
When they investigated the location there was an innocuous looking dwelling that was packed to the rafters with all the vanished assets. Spending too long in the place would crash the game, presumably because the collection detection on that number of cheeses, sheep, and grunting Nilfgaardian soldiers was just too much.
They should call it "Bagaget" which translates to "The Luggage" and put lots of small feet under it. Those who read Discworld will know what I'm talking about.
Do you think someone at IKEA had the idea and they hired someone to do it, or did someone have the idea and made it, and then talked IKEA into making it official?
The idea has been conceived and executed by creative agency Mother, in partnership with Kinggath Creations - a team of creatives, fans and mod developers who make fun and original content that blends seamlessly into the game world.
It is likely they had the idea they (the people that actually made the mod) could talk a brand into this and IKEA was one of the many brands pitched. But someone at IKEA has to have seen this and say okay this makes sense for it work obviously. Eitherway i would say it doesn't really matter as long as they do fun stuff like this
Just a reminder that they are a corporation and to not fall for their PR. They are actively destroying the environment while paying as little tax as possible. The cheapness of their furniture does have externalities one needs to consider.
At some point people need to take some responsibilities too. I have a bunch of ikea furniture. I have never thrown much away. Maybe 1 piece. I manage to disassemble and reassemble the rest when I need to. Sometimes I need to take a closer look at make sure I can disassemble and reassemble it.
People view cheap as disposable. That’s not entirely corporations fault.
I really don't understand this point, similar to the other poster below - making lightweight furniture and not clear cutting virgin forests are not mutually exclusive.
I think there's a big difference between products that are inherently harmful to the environment and products that are only harmful because the producer chooses to behave harmfully. European regulators should just stop Ikea from clear cutting virgin forests.
At this point their products have so little material that it may be better for the environment to buy an IKEA one vs decent furniture (from the standpoint of caring for the environment)
Year, day, month in that order written all together? I have seen both day-month-year (12-09-2026) and year-month-day (2026-09-12), but _that_'s a new one.
Comments
IKEA bullied the developer of the indie game The Store is Closed into gutting the whole game. [0]
It’s a shame how people can even acknowledge, let alone applaud IKEA’s “funny” gaming-related ad after their successful meddling with SCP folklore, not to speak of the chilling effect their actions may have had on indie gaming.
[0]: https://www.escapistmagazine.com/the-store-is-closed-indie-s...
This is a tough one. The main culprit here is that trademwark law forces the trademark owner into an active defense posture to avoid losing the trademwark. This is very different from patents or copyright. So, in a way, IKEA was forced to write that nasty letter to the developer. Still, it's obvious fromo the published game footage that the developer was trying to walk a line between referencing IKEA and calling them out directly.
I kind of wish that lawyers could settle these things more amicably than by opening with outright threats. The game is clearly taking SCP 3008 as its inspiration and that is a a quite satirical horror story take on IKEA stores. A part of me wishes that companies would be a bit more relaxed about obviously comedic or satirical uses of their identity. What would IKEA lose by approaching the developers in a more supportive manner initially? Say, by offering some more constructive suggestions to steer them away from the particular elements they take offense at.
It sounds like they mostly did something like that:
(from https://kotaku.com/ikea-furniture-horror-game-store-is-close..., linked in the article)
They also listed exactly what they think infringes their trademark.
They could have bought the game rights, hired the devs, or otherwise come to some licensing agreement. It’d have been a boatload of free publicity for very little outlay. I guess they may not have wanted customers to associate their store with scary things, though.
They don’t want that association and it’s definitely not a boatload of PR. This Skyrim mod works because it’s hilarious sounding.
Yeah sorry man, that's clearly IKEA so it's obvious they had to act on it. Can't sell IKEA-branded games without their permission. Even on their Steam trailer, the first second is clearly IKEA. Just changing the name is not enough. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1593010/The_Store_is_Clos...
Sometimes it's not that deep. Sometimes the cute little indie dev just made a mistake.
The game is also not out yet, even though rewards were promised in June 2024.
Do you know what parody is?
That's mentioned in the article:
Trademarks are lost when they are not defended. That is entirely separate from fair use in copyright law.
This explains why Apple has sued The Onion a dozen or so times for all the parodies that infringed on trademarks belonging to the corporation.
https://theonion.com/apple-introduces-revolutionary-new-lapt...
https://theonion.com/new-ipad-offers-3-months-of-something-c...
Trademark is about preventing someone's brand for being confused for another. Unless someone was confusing this for being an official IKEA product I'm not sure why it would be in the ballpark of trademark.
There is also trade dress of course but that isn't really related.
Just waiting for The Coca Cola company to sue Bethesda for having Nuka Cola.
Why? There are a lot of colas around the world.
This is an often repeated statement online (like “fiduciary duty”) that way over emphasizes the risk. Parody media poses absolutely no risk to their trademark, not even a tiny bit of incremental “damage.”
Companies don’t need to be bulliest the vast majority of the time they act like one. We need to stop parroting this excuse for them.
I don't believe in intellectual property, but to the extent that we live in a world where IP exists, the original game as described is pretty clearly using IKEA's trade dress.
It's still bad when mega-corporations attack small guy. Its certainly worth to shame companies for doing this kind of stuff.
And almost as comical as Nintendo buying rights to a porn movie to prevent their distribution:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Hornio_Brothers
Eh, I kinda get it. For a brief time, the Mario pipes were more associated with Flappy Bird than with Mario itself. That was fine, and the game died out quickly, but if the pipes became associated with Mario's cock, or if the IKEA layout became associated with a bloodbath pvp game, those associations could easily overtake the original meanings in popular culture, and the original brands would never be the same.
I think that would be a fair price to pay for freeing our society from the shackles of pretending you can own an idea, but I get where these executives are coming from.
people underestimated the effect of jokes / stigma of media to a brand. There is non-zero chance that adults will associate the game with ikea brand and harm the brand image.
My (very) naive take:
Was it important part of the game that the store looks just like IKEA?
If yes, that probably makes it more likely that it was a trademark infringement and that IKEA was justified. If no, it shouldn't be a big deal to change the colors, just to avoid potential confusion.
The concept reminds of Chex Quest, a Doom total conversion based on Chex, the cereal brand.
I loved playing it when I was 8 or so.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chex_Quest
Chex Quest was really good, wasn't it!? I was so impressed. Today I learned, it is known for having been the first video game ever to be included as a cereal box prize.
I watched a bit of someone's play through and was impressed by how much content there actually was for a one-off bit like this. I would have assumed they would have just made enough content to make for a funny ad but there's quite a lot of scripted storyline and voice acting.
IKEA is known for going the extra skogsmil in whatever they do.
Especially logging in old-growth forests.
(skogsmil = forest miles)
I mean, they even recreated an IKEA inside a dungeon and you have to navigate it and get the part to build your Kallax
https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/cat/kallax-series-27534/
From the FAQ:
Is this real? Yes.
I like the attention to detail with the Todd Howard reference:
I normally dislike shameless brand crossovers, but this faux low-budget, yet-another-janky-mod vibe... they committed to the bit. I can't hate it.
Funny, but I hope it doesn't catch on. This genre of games is rather free from ads and the last thing we need is corporations shoving their marketing agenda into classics.
This is precisely how you advertise. But the beauty is that you can only do this a few times before the formula becomes worn out.
Others will have to come up with something else, entirely different, that is equally inventive.
Brilliant ad on the part of IKEA. It has all of the right ingredients, is totally unexpected, outlandishly absurd, and hits at a massive audience. Truly peerless.
It's a mod for a 15 year old game. You can just choose not to install it? Lmao
I was wondering what compelled Bethesda to update the game a few weeks ago, the first time in two years. On PC, any update to the game breaks mods that rely on DLL modification, so you'd expect them to be wary of doing it for no reason. Maybe improving support for this was the impetus.
They needed to do a few nerfs and buffs to the other storage solutions to balance the game for the introduction of KALLAX
average skyrim patch notes:
- added no features
- fixed no bugs
- moved around some buttons in the paid mods menu
Is this Skyrim Special Edition or the Legendary Edition?
Skyrim Legendary Special Edition HD.
I genuinely can't tell if this is a real thing because they re-released it so often they even made a joke version called Very Special Edition once.
Play a game long enough and the main challenge becomes inventory management. I look forward to the IVAR update.
Oh, so you're team IVAR?
BILLY gang forever!
(just kidding, I actually have both, and way more IVAR shelves than BILLYs at that(BILLIES? What would be the proper plural here?))
Billipodes. Obviously.
Casting Leomund’s Secret Chest, now comes with TROFAST modular storage management system.
Best thing I saw on hacker news in a while.
One of the known bugs in skyrim that will likely never be patched is that you realistically can't fill a room with cheese wheels, cabbage, bottles of wine or any other static objects (in a cell that persists items, like in an owned house). It's already hard enough to put an object on a table or shelf and expect to not find it on the floor if you leave and come back.
Add enough objects to keep track of and it'll crash the game immediately on loading the cell. Some of the examples of cluttered objects in the video are already pushing the limits of what will crash the game engine.
You've reminded me of a story from the Witcher 3 devs where during an earlier build items would randomly disappear. Horses, weapons, tankards, even NPCs... you name it, on certain conditions they would vanish before the player's eyes. Turns out they weren't just disappearing, they were "teleporting" by effectively respawning at a single point in the dead centre of the map. When they investigated the location there was an innocuous looking dwelling that was packed to the rafters with all the vanished assets. Spending too long in the place would crash the game, presumably because the collection detection on that number of cheeses, sheep, and grunting Nilfgaardian soldiers was just too much.
Is that Matt Berry!?
That is not Matt Berry's voice.
It literally says on the mod page "Voiced by Matt Berry"
Yeah, but I'm pretty sure the voice over in the video is Swedish world strongest man winner Magnus Samuelsson.
There are two VOs by Matt berry during the video. There’s more than one voice.
Unmistakably so.
I heard this in his voice.
in my country ikea product sold as luxury product ..
They should call it "Bagaget" which translates to "The Luggage" and put lots of small feet under it. Those who read Discworld will know what I'm talking about.
I wanted to install it, but the instructions were just a bunch of pictures.
Lest we forget, the seminal guerrilla daytime drama: IKEA Heights
https://youtube.com/@ikeaheights?si=ZP7jYR1cUw16yhvo
Why and how it remains available, only Google knows!
Do you think someone at IKEA had the idea and they hired someone to do it, or did someone have the idea and made it, and then talked IKEA into making it official?
The idea has been conceived and executed by creative agency Mother, in partnership with Kinggath Creations - a team of creatives, fans and mod developers who make fun and original content that blends seamlessly into the game world.
https://creative.salon/articles/work/ikea-mother-kallax-stor...
It is likely they had the idea they (the people that actually made the mod) could talk a brand into this and IKEA was one of the many brands pitched. But someone at IKEA has to have seen this and say okay this makes sense for it work obviously. Eitherway i would say it doesn't really matter as long as they do fun stuff like this
Pure marketing genius
Just a reminder that they are a corporation and to not fall for their PR. They are actively destroying the environment while paying as little tax as possible. The cheapness of their furniture does have externalities one needs to consider.
At some point people need to take some responsibilities too. I have a bunch of ikea furniture. I have never thrown much away. Maybe 1 piece. I manage to disassemble and reassemble the rest when I need to. Sometimes I need to take a closer look at make sure I can disassemble and reassemble it.
People view cheap as disposable. That’s not entirely corporations fault.
Yeah, the total mass of all my Ikea furniture is probably equivalent to one hardwood table, so it can't be that bad for the environment.
I really don't understand this point, similar to the other poster below - making lightweight furniture and not clear cutting virgin forests are not mutually exclusive.
I think there's a big difference between products that are inherently harmful to the environment and products that are only harmful because the producer chooses to behave harmfully. European regulators should just stop Ikea from clear cutting virgin forests.
At this point their products have so little material that it may be better for the environment to buy an IKEA one vs decent furniture (from the standpoint of caring for the environment)
They can make lightweight furniture while not rasing virgin forests to the ground.
Is it April yet?
No it's 9/12
9/12 = 3/4, so it is April?
It's not December yet?
I agree with the spirit of your comment. 20261209 Is a much better way to express the date than the 9/12 Americanism.
Year, day, month in that order written all together? I have seen both day-month-year (12-09-2026) and year-month-day (2026-09-12), but _that_'s a new one.